Monday, July 28, 2008

Lalande Digital Press is happy to be working with Keep Calm Gallery, the hip-online gallery for fine art prints in the UK. The newest works from Matthew Rose are from his A KICK IN THE KUNST series, exhibited at Galerie Rossella Junck Berlin.

Mittwoch, 2007, is German for "Wednesday," (literally middle of the week) and artist Matthew Rose's puppet-master/puppet collage. First exhibited in Berlin at Galerie Rossella Junck, Mittwoch (Limited signed and numbered edition of 21) plays with both silhouette and shadow, each exhibiting a presence but Mittwoch is oddly absent an actual protagonist. The artist says this is something of a self-portrait, and he is somewhere in the gap of here and there.

Haushalten is German for "keeping house," and in this piece, the house is not what it seems to be: constructed of 1950s advertising, the woman of the house shows off her newest gadget, a giant thingamajig, or if you like, a...dohickey, gizmo, gismo, or a thingamabob – on an ancient Roman pedestal. The surreal qualities of this good housekeeping moment – the blue sky blows through the gadget – points to terribly sunny days ahead from America's recent past. Haushalten, was produced in an edition of 19, is signed and number; it is also part of the A Kick in the Kunst series exhibited in Berlin at Galerie Rossella Junck.

Whirlaway, 2007, is one of the more complex of Matthew Rose's collage works from the A Kick in the Kunst series. The name, a feature from a mid-century Oldsmobile, purports a strange and perhaps violent future as a man hacks away at a tree. In the panel opposite, a girl and her shadow climb in a nether-space, a plate of prunes and cereal functioning as her head. The artist, who grew up in the American suburbs, reiterates the hidden and bizarre drama of the American middle-class dream. Whirlaway is produced in a limited edition of 12, each signed and numbered on high quality cotton paper.

Interested in these prints? Get in contact with Haley and Lucas at Keep Calm Gallery. Interested in making your own prints? Get in touch with Burning Boy Press Paris.